#holiday-music

#holiday-music

I can't stop listening to: Marvin Gaye, " Purple Snowflakes ." With all respect to " Christmas Eve in Washington ," this lightly lysergic soul tune is my favorite holiday song by a local artist. Motown shelved the original version and got Gaye to rerecord it as " Pretty Little Baby ," a frankly suboptimal state of affairs that persisted until 1993, when the original recording appeared on a compilation .

Last night, December 20, Ariana Grande returned to Studio 8H to host Saturday Night Live for the second time in as many years. During her monologue, Grande parodied Mariah Carey's recently record-breaking "All I Want for Christmas Is You" and was joined by Bowen Yang, who is leaving the SNL cast midway through his eighth season. She also appeared in sketches throughout the evening as an Elf on the Shelf, a dance instructor, and Macaulay Culkin's Kevin McCallister from Home Alone.

It's the holiday season, and Christmas music is utterly inescapable. Look, I love Mariah Carey and Wham! As much as the next guy. But at some point, you get really tired of hearing the same handful of Christmas songs over and over again. So here are 10 suggestions to add to your holiday playlist that are hopefully a little less obvious.

Whatever winter holiday you might honor or tradition you might practice, December is a month where we mark another cycle around the sun and celebrate it through art and cultural practices. Integral to our ceremonies and our family gatherings are the art, music, dance, theater, crafts and poetry we share. These are our offerings to each other. Whether your stories are told through intimate family folktales, hand-crafted gifts, stunning visual imagery or grand performances, this is the season for spinning magic.

We love those classic Christmas recordings. And we cherish the chance to hear Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis, Barbra Streisand, the Beach Boys, Darlene Love and other greats sing these standards each and every Christmas season. Yet, we also like to spice things up and add some new voices to our holiday playlist. Thankfully, we never have any shortage of contenders trying to make the cut.